Short-pulse Subthreshold vs Infrared Micropulse for Diabetic Macular Edema

All treatments were performed using SPCW EndPoint 30% and 50% protocols and STMP laser. Patients in the STMP group were treated with the 810-nm diode micropulse scanning laser TxCell™ (IRIDEX Corporation, Mountain View, CA, USA) at 15% duty cycle. Laser was applied in the confluent mode (low intensity/high density) to cover the entire area of the macular edema and leakage as imaged by OCT and/or fundus fluorescein angiography. Patients in the SPCW group were treated with grid pattern laser with 20ms pulse PASCAL laser 532nm (TopCon Medical Laser Systems, Tokyo, Japan) with EndPoint algorithm, which was either 30% or 50% of testing burn with one burn width apart. In both groups, subthreshold power was determined by titrating burn to light (barely visible) burn and switching to either micropulse mode with 15% duty cycle or 30% and 50% EndPoint value.